We just moved into a new house. We got an awesome deal on it. It’s a rental, and it’s rented out as a two bedroom, because there are two bedrooms upstairs, but, there is a HUGE basement. The problem is that the basement was in pretty bad shape when we moved in. One of the rooms has mold in the ceiling, and all the rooms are super dirty. The family room had previously been used as a recording studio… or something. It had layers and layers of fabric (black) on the walls and a stage in the back of it. The room that should have been a bathroom had been transformed to a recording studio that now has cinder blocks piled into it. It’s considered unfinished, but the walls are in. There is just no carpet and no sheet rock on the ceiling in most of the rooms (with the exception of the room with the mold on the ceiling).

One of the rooms downstairs has my washer and dryer in it. It had no working light fixture and it was SUPER dirty. I wish I would have taken before pictures. I had to keep reminding myself how cheap our rent is.

So the previous renters had done nothing with the basement. We decided that we weren’t okay with that. We have all this space, plus the fact that I have to do laundry down there means I spend a LOT of time in it. I am not okay doing laundry in a dark, musky, smelly (and oh boy did it smell) basement.

So we got to work cleaning it. We bought a light fixture and swept… and swept… and swept. It looked a lot better after just a little bit of time.

I felt like it was a little bare and that the concrete was a little cold and uninviting. Since I am planning on making that room into a craft room/sewing room, I want it to be pretty! However… I didn’t want to break the bank, so I decided to make a drop cloth rug. I had heard that you could do all sorts of things with drop cloths and I was really excited to test it out.

To make one, you need:

a painter’s drop cloth

paint

a paint brush

painters tape

So, I went and bought one of these:

I bought this drop cloth for $10 at Home Depot. I wish I would have sprung for the $13 one because it was a little heavier. This one is pretty thin, but it works.

The first thing I did was tape off the pattern. I know this doesn’t look like much of a pattern, but I swear it is. Oh, by the way, I ran out of painters tape at the end and had to use masking tape.. not a good idea. It was way harder to get off.

Once I had my pattern all taped out, I started painting. It only took one coat of paint, and for this pattern I used about 2 pints. I actually got the paint for free awhile ago when Ace Hardware did their free quart of paint day.

After the paint was dry, I peeled back the tape. Easy enough, right?

I love it because it adds color and it feels better on my feet than the cement. I also love that I only spent $10 on it!

I love the rug and can't believe how cheap it was to make! It definitely brightens up the space.

If your landlord will let you, I've seen in the past some tutorials on doing paperbag flooring that's supposed to be pretty cheap and would let you cover the entire area. Though I'm not sure how well it would hold up in a basement.

Great effort you have done for your new home. I am amazed to see this transformation. This all look beautiful. And really thanks a lot for sharing your experience and also inspiring me a lot. Now I am also in a mood to clean my home.

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